The present invention relates to a decorative panel such as a cabinet door, table top, wall hanging or the like and to a method of manufacturing such a decorative panel. More specifically, the present invention relates to the method of manufacturing a decorative wood panel having a contrasting pattern simulating a wood inlay.
The use of decorative panels for cabinet doors, table tops and the like is well known. By way of example, the 1871 U.S. Pat. No. 119,710 to Hyatt, Jr. illustrates a method of creating an apparent inlay in which a surface is coated, a die is used to selectively depress portions of the surface to form the desired design and then the coating abraded from the undepressed surfaces. Because the coating is not abraded from the depressed surfaces, a contrasting decorative pattern is created. In such a process, the wood grain of the depressed surface is obscured by the coating, or if unobscured by the coating, it lacks contrast because it is part of the same material and thus perfectly matches the wood grain of the undepressed surface.
Another prior art method such as illustrated in the 1902 Webb U.S. Pat. No. 691,214 uses a die to press a desired pattern into blocks of wood having contrasting colors, the two pieces of wood thereafter being placed together intaglio, and the wood thereafter being cut along the line one half the depth of the initial relief in both pieces so that each initial block of wood retains portions of the other. Because of the necessary thickness of the saw blade to cut panels of any substantial size, the depth of the initial relief must be quite substantial and the process is restricted to small tiles.
To obviate many of these difficulties in the inlaying of woods, the prior art has attempted to use materials other than wood to create an inlayed design. For example, the Cameron U.S. Pat. No. 473,185 creates a lattice of wood and forms in situ an easily fusible alloy of metal such as Babbitt metal or solder. A similar process for a synthetic plastic material is illustrated in a Shmitz U.S. Pat. No. 3,700,533. The panels created by such methods produce a planar surface in which the inlay material is devoid of a wood grain and thus does not have the desired appearance of a wood inlay.
It is accordingly an object of the present invention to obviate the deficiencies of the known prior art and to provide a novel decorative panel and method of manufacture in which the inlay is of a synthetic material having the appearance of a wood grain.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a novel decorative panel and method of manufacture having a simulated wood grain inlay molded in situ.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a novel decorative panel and method of manufacture which may be more fully automated and is relatively inexpensive and rapidly produced.
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the claims and from the detailed description of the preferred embodiment when read in conjunction with the appended drawings.